January 2008 Archives

About 120 people attended Friday evening's (January 25, 2008) The Legacy of Gold Mountain: Chinese Immigrant Families in Southern Arizona. Organized by Pima Community College as the first of its new Discovering Southern Arizona series, it was held at the beautiful Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. It featured presentations by David Tang, Yen "Gary" Low, and Pasty Lee. Peter Chan introduced the speakers and lead the Q&A session following the three presentations. Chan is on the Board of Directors of the Tucson Chinese Association.

Speakers
David Tang, Jr., gave the first presentation. Mr. Tang is a third generation Chinese American a second generation Tucsonan. Biographies of Mr. Tang's mother Esther Don Tang, father Ong Bing Lok (David W. Tang, Sr.), and grandparents Don Wah and Fok Yut Ngan, are featured in Through Our Parents' Eyes The Promise of Gold Mountain website. We will always be grateful to Esther Don Tang, without whose contributions this site would not exist.

Pima Community College Community Education will present the first in an ongoing lecture series entitled Discovering Southern Arizona on Friday, January 25, 2008, at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 West River Road [map]. The program begins at 6:00 p.m.

Local Chinese Americans from the Tang, Low and Lee families will share their histories and legacies through the perspectives of several generations. “The Legacy of Gold Mountain: Chinese Immigrant Families in Southern Arizona” will acknowledge the contributions and relate family histories of Chinese who immigrated to America, the Gold Mountain, beginning in the late 1800s. Chinese families settled in southern Arizona preserving and transitioning their culture, lives, families and values and strengthened the region with their contributions to the communities.

Cultural entertainment, including the dragon dance and the lion dance, will be provided along with light refreshments.

Over the years we've learned about the challenges faced by native speakers to preserve their language. Within the southern Arizona area, the Tohono O'odham Community Action (TOCA) has developed a strong cultural preservation program that includes such things as Rain Ceremony Revitalization, Traditional Singing and Dance Group and Traditional Storytelling Events. Here at the UA, CERCLL, The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy, emphasizes 'strategically important and under-taught languages,' and brings together faculty members from throughout the UA.

Of interest to those of you active in language preservation (and to those of us on the sidelines) is an announcement from NSF of The Linguists, a documentary premiering at Sundance that highlights "endangered languages in Siberia, India and Bolivia."

Among the artifacts in Patricia Stephenson's collection from Tom and Louise Marshall, is Tom's 1903 UA yearbook, The Burro '03. We now have a Web version of the 1903 Burro available. Take a look at the University and college life in Tucson as it was roughly 105 years ago. Visitors will see photos and sketches of campus, read a history of the University and student literary works, and ads placed by local businesses such as L. Zeckendorf & Co. Department Store, Martin's Drug, Fred Ronstadt, and Crescent Cigar Co.